The Korea Society presents a retrospective of the work of Choi Min-shik, one of Korea’s most recognizable contemporary actors, as part of our ongoing “Korean Cinema Now” program with MoMI (the Museum of Moving Image).

Choi Min-shik had numerous television roles, but his big break came in 1999 when he played a cold-blooded North Korean soldier in Swiri (Dir. Kang Je-gyu) and suddenly gained a reputation as one of Korea’s finest actors. His acting dominates the silver screen, but his characters have more than charisma. In Failan, he played a thug, married to a Chinese woman out of convenience, but who sheds tears of regret when his “fake” wife dies. In Strokes of Fire, which won the Best Director Prize at the 55th Cannes Film Festival, he played the famous nineteenth-century Korean painter Jang Seung-up. In 2004, Choi returned to Cannes when director Park Chan-woo’s bloody revenge epic, Old Boy, won the Grand Prix-award. Choi's impassioned and robust acting can seize an audience's heart, and he is now known to film buffs worldwide.

This Choi Min-shik tribute will be presented at the newly renovated Museum of the Moving Image, home to New York City’s finest, state-of-the-art screen. Films are free with museum admission. This tribute is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Taxi 10 minutes from The Korea Society or NQ Train Outbound to 36th Ave., 36th Street and 35th Avenue, Astoria.

Made possible with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts.

Failan 
2001, 116 min.

Director: Song Hae-sung
Starring: Choi Min-sik, Cecilia Cheung and Jeong Dae-Hoon

Choi Min-sik plays the perfect outsider in Song Hae-sung’s tale of a down-and-out gangster who finally finds love.

Sunday, May 20, 2012 
3 PM

The Museum of the Moving Image 
35th Avenue at 37th Street, Astoria 
From midtown, taxi or N/Q Train outbound to 36th Avenue 

 
Film free with museum admission at The Museum of the Moving Image.